1. warm-up: joint rolls top to bottom; warm up back with front, back, and side bends plus twists; 5 mins of running in place moving in various ways (ended with legs swinging side to side to transition in to side leg swings; leg swings to sides, back, and and front (about 2 X 10 each direction) (switched order so that front swings would be last, preparing hamstrings for lunges). Time = between 15-20 mins.

Afterward, my left knee on the left side at the lower part of the knee (at about 10:00 looking down at knee from above) felt weird/unstable with a little bit of pain. Felt it when I would walk up the staircase, and felt it most if I pressed with entire foot, not just the ball. Not sure what caused this. My left foot turns in a little when I walk; perhaps the foot turns in when I lunge forward or backward and this affects the knee. I've felt this pain/weirdness before. Also, I noticed a little pain in the knee when I was doing the ankle exercises where my foot droops to form the knife foot, and I lift it up. Perhaps I need better support for the leg above and below the knee when I do these. After thinking about this, I think the pain/instability is caused by that particular ankle exercise. Need either to replace with some other exercise or to find a better way to support leg.

Friday (10/24/08):Upper hamstrings and glutes a little stiff today. I was surprised by that given that Thursday was the fourth workout with lunges at 10 lbs 1 set, 20 reps. Been fighting a cold. Had a sore throat and yellow mucus each day this week, but I've felt fine energy wise. Completed back/ab workout today (below). Tomorrow is a rest day. Will skip legs and do back/abs on Sunday if how hams/glutes are still sore. Will drop to 5 pounds on the lunges in med intensity week, and will probably increase reps but not weight for high intensity week.

Sunday (10/26/08):Knees and hams felt good today. I appear to be over my cold.

1. warm-up: joint rolls top to bottom; warm up back, abs, and obliques with front, back, and side bends plus twists; 5 mins of running in place moving in various ways (end with legs swinging side to side to transition in to side leg swings; leg swings to sides, back, and and front (between 2-3 X 10 each direction). Time = between 15-20 mins.

Rest interval: awful. kept getting interrupted. I should have waited until late afternoon when household calms down.

3. Cool down: jogged in place for about 3 minutes. will stretch later this evening.

No pain in left knee like Thursday. Supported leg better when performing ankle exercises. Lunge weight issue: had originally added 10 pounds because I was concerned that adding repetitions was going to make workout too long. Because I've cut down to two stength workouts a week, one of which is on Sunday, I'm less concerned about that. So, I cut back to 5 pounds and added 5 reps.

Monday (10/27/08): relatively easy jog for 20 minutes. Considering replacing jogs/runs with an aerobic routine that will move arms and legs through a more full range of motion than jogging/running does.

Skipped back extensions because back not fully recovered from Tuesday. Will do at end of leg exercises on Friday. Not sure why Tuesday felt much harder than previous workouts; sets/reps didn't change much. Perhaps due to fact that I mistakenly did all ab exercises prior to back extensions. Aerobic issue: I had decided to reduce strength workouts to 2/week and add 2 days of aerobic work. Changed mind. Going back to old way. Due to high number of repetitions and length of workout (about 40 minutes, excepting the ankle exercises), heart rate in aerobic zone for sufficient amount of time; for now, at least. When load increases such that reps fall to between 8-15, I'll reintroduce specific aerobic days.

1. warm-up: joint rolls top to bottom; warm up back, abs, and obliques with front, back, and side bends plus twists; 5 mins of running in place moving in various ways; leg swings to sides, back, and and front (between 2-3 X 10 each direction). Time = between 15-20 mins.

Sunday (11/2/08): Hamstrings still sore. Joined gym. Moving workout days so that final rest day is Monday. Was going to do legs today, but because hams still sore, flipping abs and legs. Will rest on Monday, and begin microcycle on Tuesday.

1. Warm up: hip circles; forward, backward, and sideways bends; twists; jogged in place for about 3 minutes; performed 25 unweighted sit-ups.2. Sit-ups: 20 lbs 3x30 (went from 15/1X100 to 20/3X30 lbs; felt comfortable and today (Monday), I feel no soreness or stiffness3. Back extensions: 3X27. Using back extension bench, which is set a 60-70 degrees? A little difficult getting a sense of when back is straight with legs; I think I overextended on the first set. Last set, last 10 repetitions were difficult. Today (Monday), lower back is sore (about 2 out of 10)3. Crunches: 2 X failure (feet and hips at 90 degrees) (50, 30).4. Reverse crunches: 1 X failure (50).

I think we can rule out "disfunction." Prior to my calf injury (see my martial arts experience post in the General Discussion) I began experiencing back pain. The sports med doc. concluded there was nothing functionally wrong and that my aches were the result of fatigue. I stopped my back exercises (back extensions off the couch, 3 X 25-30, twice a week, plus TKD) until the aches disappeared and my back felt normal again (this took between 2 and 3 weeks). I stopped going to TKD due to my calf injury, which helped too. After the aches subsided, I re-started my back work, returning to back extensions on the floor, doing 3 X 15 on 90 seconds rest. I've worked my way up from there (conservatively), and with the past two days as an exception, my back has felt fine.

My hamstrings felt fine for 8 weeks. (I began posting my workouts in week 7 of my workout plan. I'm currently in week 12.) In week 9, I increased the weight for lunges from 0 to 10 lbs (see posts for Week 3: Sunday 10/12 and Tuesday 10/14). I believe this is what started my hamstring issues. For now, my thought on the slow hamstring recovery is that it is not related to my back. I just increased the weight for my lunges too quickly.

For now, I'm going to reduce the lunge weight back to 0 and reduce the reps to 20. I'll work my way up to 30 reps and then add 5 lbs. For back extensions, I'm going to reduce the reps to 3 X 20 until I get used to the back extension bench I'm now using. If the hamstring recovery doesn't improve, I'll reconsider going to a chiropractor.

Although my hamstrings feel fine today, I'm going to wait one more day before I do another leg workout, just to make sure.

1. warm-up: joint rolls top to bottom; warm up back, abs, and obliques with front, back, and side bends plus twists; 5 mins of running in place moving in various ways; leg swings to sides, back, and and front (between 2-3 X 10 each direction). Time = between 15-20 mins.

2. Main workouta. front lunge: (no weight for any of the lunges) 1 X 20b. isometric physical therapy exercises for left forearmc. back lunge: 1 X 20d. isometric physical therapy exercises for left forearme. side lunge: 1 X 20f. hindu squats 1 X 70 g. hamstring curls 4 lbs/1 X 65 both legs, but one at a time (ankle weight used) (I was scheduled to do 70, but I neglected to look at my chart; did 70 hindu squats by mistake, just forgot to stop at 65)j. ankles: 10 lbs (ankle weight wrapped around foot): (leg parallel to ground) lift toward ceiling 1 X 35; (leg perpendicular to ground) lift up 1 X 15 (appear to be maxing out at 15); heal raises on steps 1 X 20 (still maxing out at 20) (was scheduled to do more of everything, same explanation as above)

3. Cool down: jogged in place for about 4 minutes. No stretching.

Today (Thursday 11/6) my hamstrings feel good except for one spot on my upper inner hamstring (right leg). There is a hint of soreness (1 out of 10) when I dig my fingers into the inner side of the upper semitendinosus (right underneath my rear). Feels like the spot is between two muscles.

It appears my inner quads are sore. After monkeying with my hamstrings, I began to massage my quads (for no particular reason--they did not feel stiff or sore). When I press on the inner muscle (vastus medialus), it hurts.

Inner quads still sore when pressed (right leg more than the left). Right hip flexor area feels funny today--uneasy, vulnerable. In Feb. 07, I suffered a severe overuse injury to right hip flexor, which required an extended period of physical therapy. Current weight on weighted sit-ups does not feel difficult. To be safe, however, I'm going to cut weight on weighted sit-ups back to 10 pounds, but still do 3 X 30. I'm considering cutting back reps on hindu squats--back to 50, maybe. I might have progressed too quickly.

You have said you are not sure why you could do so many more sit ups (max 500 reps) than crunches (max 50), yet I think you know why because you are aware that you need to reduce the intensity of your sit ups when you feel the hip flexor strain. Do you brace your feet when doing sit ups, and are your legs bent? If so, you may be using your quads and hip flexors as much or more than your abs.

Consider changing your regular crunches routine as follows:

Alternate (super-set) sets of ball crunches with ball bridges rather than taking one minute rest intervals. Ball crunches can be made easier on the back if you place the ball higher against your low back and more challenging when you place the ball lower on your hips and add an oblique twist (hands behind neck).

Keep doing bicycle crunches. These might be super-set with your back extensions (which you do right next to them, anyway) or the plank on elbows and toes.

If you must do any prone crunches with feet resting on floor and knees at right angle (regular crunches), raise both shoulders and hips when you contract so that only the mid-lower back remains flat on the floor. Try it, you’ll see what I mean.

I am not certain this will help you advance in strength required for crunches any faster than your current work, because you already take a one minute rest interval. Maybe the rest interval will be longer if you super-set, thus enabling you to do more sets/reps before fatigue. Perhaps it depends on the pace you set. Keep in mind that slower reps build strength.

What I've written is my abs routine. It includes no actual "sit-ups," yet I can easily do situps at the dojang because these exercises have made my abs strong. Kicking, swimming and prone straight leg raises strengthen my hip flexors and quads, not braced feet regular sit-ups.